Ali Kayley and Dan Glaister
From Purgatory to Paradise: an Indulgence
16mm film work
Thursday 30th - Friday 31st May 4-9pm;
Saturday 1st June 11-4pm
Goods Shed, Stroud GL5 3AP
Friday 31st May - Saturday 1st June 11-4pm
Knapp House Barn, Slad, Stroud GL6 7JZ
Walk from Purgatory to Paradise
Saturday 1st June 2pm
Knapp House Barn, Slad, Stroud GL6 7JZ
bindlestifffilm@gmail.com / 01435 759520
From Purgatory to Paradise: an Indulgence chronicles the flight from Purgatory on 16mm film. A figure treads a path that is well-worn and ancient yet elusive, a path that is both mythical and material. Following on from the Site 2012 showing of the Conquistador films, Ali Kayley and Dan Glaister return with two 16mm films and a performance.
From Purgatory to Paradise takes as its starting point the existence of a small copse named Purgatory near Slad. Three miles to the north, near Painswick, lies Paradise. In the Middle Ages, sinners hoped to avoid going to Purgatory after their death by purchasing indulgences or pardons, chits of paper bearing extravagant promises. It was a transaction fraught with uncertainty: would the Indulgence help the soul escape Purgatory and find peace? Developed during a month-long residency at Meantime in Cheltenham, From Purgatory to Paradise traces the physical and the metaphysical journey between the two points, a trace that is there but momentarily, persisting even after the film has moved on, a retinal memory. In the same way that the film references and gives flesh to myth and superstition, so the walk between the two points at the very end of the festival takes this handed-down notion and does it for real. |